Airbus SE is a European multinational aerospace corporation. The 'SE' in the name means it is a Societas Europaea, which enables it to be registered as European rather than Dutch. As of 2019, Airbus is the world's largest airliner manufacturer and took the most airliner orders. Airbus is registered in the Netherlands; its shares are traded in France, Germany and Spain. It designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft in the European Union and various other countries. The company has three divisions: Commercial Aircraft (Airbus S.A.S.), Defence and Space, and Helicopters, the third being the largest in its industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopter deliveries. Airbus is an international reference in the aerospace sector. They design, manufacture and deliver industry-leading commercial aircraft, helicopters, military transports, satellites and launch vehicles, as well as providing data services, navigation, secure communications, urban mobility and other solutions for customers on a global scale.
The company's main civil aeroplane business is conducted through the French company Airbus S.A.S. based in Blagnac, a suburb of Toulouse, with production and manufacturing facilities mostly in Europe (France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom) but also in China, the United States and Canada. The company produces and markets the first commercially viable digital fly-by-wire airliner, the Airbus A320, and the world's largest passenger airliner, the A380. The 12,000th aircraft, an A220, was delivered to Delta Air Lines on 20 May 2019. By October 2016, the global Airbus fleet has performed more than 110 million flights, totalling over 215 billion kilometres and carrying 12 billion passengers. Airbus's registered headquarters is in Leiden, Netherlands, with the operating head office located in Toulouse.
The Airbus product line started with the A300 in 1972, the world's first twin-aisle, twin-engined aircraft. In June 2013, Airbus announced that it was developing a range of "smart suitcases" known as Bag2Go for air travellers, in conjunction with luggage-maker Rimowa and IT firm T-Systems. The cases feature a collection of built-in electronic gadgets which communicate with a smartphone app and with the IT systems of the airline, to assist the traveller and improve reliability and security of baggage handling. Gadgets include a weighing scale and a location tracker, using GPS for location tracking, RFID for identification, and a SIM card for messaging. then, similar products have been announced by other companies.
In the late 1990s, Airbus became increasingly interested in developing and selling to the military aviation market. It embarked on two main fields of development: aerial refuelling with the Airbus A310 MRTT (Multi-Role Tanker Transport) and the Airbus A330 MRTT, and tactical airlift with the Airbus A400M Atlas.
In January 1999 Airbus established a separate company, Airbus Military SAS, to undertake
development and production of a turboprop-powered tactical transport aircraft, the A400M.
Airbus has committed to the "Flightpath 2050", an aviation industry plan to reduce noise, CO2,
and NOx emissions.
Airbus was the first aerospace business to become ISO 14001 certified, in January 2007; this is a broader certification covering the whole organisation, not just the aircraft it produces. In association with Honeywell and JetBlue Airbus has developed a biofuel to reduce pollution and dependence on fossil fuels, claiming that this has the potential to replace up to a third of the world's aviation fuel. Algae-based biofuel absorbs carbon dioxide during growth and does not compete with food production. This alternative may be commercially available by 2030 but algae and other vegetation-based fuels are in an early stage of development and fuel-bearing algae have been expensive to develop. Airbus offers delivery flights to airlines using a 10% biofuel blend in standard engines. The fuel does not cut carbon emissions but is free of sulphur emissions and demonstrates that the fuel could be used in commercial flights in unmodified engines.
In September 2020, Airbus unveiled three liquid hydrogen-fueled "ZEROe" concept aircraft that
it claims could become the first commercial zero-emission aircraft, entering service by 2035.
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